La Cieca


The place: the Metropolitan Opera. The time: October 2008. The event: a cult diva’s return to the Met after a 24-season absence. The hint: what’s my name again?

on July 21, 2006 at 1:13 PM

The mystery is solved, and, as usual, La Cieca predicted it well ahead of the official announcement. Per the Met’s website, David Daniels will sing the four performances of the new Orfeo ed Euridice production in May 2007. David joins a distinguished group of artists who have interpreted the role of Orfeo at the Met,…

on July 18, 2006 at 12:13 PM

Through her usual impeccable and top-secret sources, La Cieca has managed to obtain some obviously bootlegged but fascinating video of the opera Grendel, as performed at the Lincoln Center Festival earlier this week. The video quality is only fair, but clip does depict some of the masterful puppet design by Julie Taymor.

on July 16, 2006 at 5:24 PM

Margaret Hamilton stars in the title role of The Licia Albanese Story. (Actually, that is Margaret Hamilton, but the role is that of an eccentric Texas millionairess who hires a high school band to accompany her performance of the national anthem in the Astrodome. It’s the opening scene of Robert Altman‘s 1970 film Brewster McCloud.…

on July 12, 2006 at 3:37 PM

Among the extra-musical delights in the New York City Opera’s production of Mark Adamo‘s Lysistrata, definitely front and center is baritone James Bobick, who rocks the role of Kinesias. (He is seen pictured with Jennifer Rivera. Try looking a little up and to the right and you’ll see her.) Mr. Bobick next appears at the…

on March 22, 2006 at 11:29 PM

Unnatural Acts of Opera presents a tribute to soprano Anna Moffo, who died Thursday night.

on March 11, 2006 at 2:27 PM

Mezzo-turned-soprano Violeta Urmana will sing her first Norma later this month. She will take on the Bellini heroine in concert form at Dresden’s Semper Oper beginning March 30, according to an article on Playbillarts.com. The good news from Boston is that James Levine “didn’t break anything” when he fell off the stage after a performance…

on March 03, 2006 at 5:41 PM

The performance of Angela Gheorghiu as Violetta has attracted the attention of another Violetta of the present (Anna Netrebko), who will likely be a future interpreter of the role here in New York. And at least one Violetta of a past generation is expected to pay a courtesy call: Virginia Zeani has accepted an invitation…

on February 12, 2006 at 8:32 PM

Mike Richter is at it again, this time producing some very polished DVD presentations of operatic productions that are not available commerically. At only $15 a disc, Image Mogul is practically giving them away. Here’s a clip from one of the more mainstream offerings, a 1978 Don Carlo from La Scala with Placido Domingo and…

on February 11, 2006 at 1:34 AM

Not that La Cieca begrudges Jessye Norman her Grammy Award (she’s pictured celebrating in Tokyo after the ceremonies), but, honestly, what all has La Jess achieved in her lifetime that she should be given a Lifetime Achievement award? Certainly Norman’s has been a very visible and well-publicized career, but when La Cieca talks about a…

on February 09, 2006 at 12:10 PM

Alas, La Cieca can’t comment regarding onstage goings on at last night’s Traviata at the Met (her evil twin JJ is writing about the event for Gay City News), but things were pretty gala in the auditorium as well. Representing the Blogosphere was one of the Wellsungs, Jonathan Ferrantelli, a deux with the always charming…

on February 08, 2006 at 1:42 PM

From an article on Teresa Berganza‘s website, “Teresa Berganza, canto as expression of a style”: She’s got black eyes and a white simile . . . . Her voice, the subduing voice of Teresa Berganza is something like the invocation of a mystery made accomplice to the shinning of her gaze; a voice full of…

on February 06, 2006 at 1:17 PM

“I sang Violetta that year, too! Tony Tommasini said it was the best thing I ever did! They never even broadcast it in the United States! They were too busy giving a big build-up to that crap you were turning out.” Video

on February 06, 2006 at 11:32 AM

The New York Post‘s Clive Barnes is going to blush beet-red when he hears from the publicists (or the lawyers) who handle Placido Domingo. In a review of the Met’s Rigoletto, Barnes refers to PD as “the 72-year-old tenor.” Domingo admits to 65, though some gossips have long sniped that this figure doesn’t add up…

on February 03, 2006 at 10:46 AM

You would think that La Cieca would climb on her very high horse about the elementary school music theater in Colorado who riled up parents by showing the “Who’s Afraid of Opera?” version of Gounod’s Faust to her students. And certainly some of those parents overreacted in the good old American way. (One mom called…

on February 02, 2006 at 5:58 PM

La Cieca hears that last night at the Met (i.e, only a few hours after Angela Gheorghiu‘s dress rehearsal) ushers were handing out complimentary copies of a DVD of La traviata. Starring Anna Netrebko. On a less ominous note, Unnatural Acts of Opera presents Beverly Sills at her most scintillating in a 1970 performance of…

on February 02, 2006 at 11:08 AM

La Cieca’s spy L’incredibile, who has only moments ago slunk home from the Met’s Traviata dress rehearsal, predicts a triumph for Angela Gheorghiu as Violetta. “The most beautiful soprano to sing the role here since Anna Moffo,” L’incredibile exults, though he adds reservations about the carrying power of Gheorgiu’s “veiled” voice and the “frequent disagreements”…

on February 01, 2006 at 3:58 PM

In her never-ceasing quest to give you, the reader, what you want and need, La Cieca has restored the “Google Search” function on parterre.com. With this handy gizmo you can search the entire (blog and non-blog) parterre.com site, or, years from now when you’ve learned all you can learn from La Cieca, you can also…

on February 01, 2006 at 12:59 PM

Leonie Rysanek in film clips spanning 35 years of her career: Die Aegyptische Helena, Der Fliegende Hollaender, Die Walkuere, Salome, Tosca, Der Rosenkavalier, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Cavalleria Rusticana, Parsifal, Elektra, and Jenufa. More video.

on January 28, 2006 at 10:11 PM

According to playbillarts.com, Deborah Voigt will appear on 60 Minutes this Sunday to discuss weight loss, career and such. UPDATE: the 60 Minutes piece is now online.

on January 28, 2006 at 11:08 AM

“Pampered” Australian sheep who listen to opera have (once again!) produced the world’s finest wool. Rumors from Salzburg suggest the parting of the ways with Renee Fleming was not so amicable as we are led to believe: the word La Cieca keeps hearing is “Scheissdosende.” (Well, actually, she just invented that word, but it sums…

on January 27, 2006 at 11:01 AM

According to playbill.com, Cecilia Bartoli is replacing Renée Fleming in Salzburg’s all-star concert celebrating the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth on January 27. It seems Renaaay demurred from singing the concert aria “Ch’io mi scordi di te” for “vocal reasons.” (Good to hear it wasn’t because she had objections to the text or anything.) Bartoli…

on January 25, 2006 at 2:37 PM

Ah, the 1960s! Corelli and Nilsson in Turandot! Tebaldi in Gioconda! Freni‘s debut! Milanov‘s farewell! Beverly‘s breakthrough Giulio Cesare! The two-night blizzard testing the loyalties of the standees queued for Maria‘s return to the Met! (And let’s not forget the war in Vietnam, LSD, and the miniskirt!) By an odd coincidence, La Cieca’s podcast and…

on January 25, 2006 at 12:03 PM

… that a certain baton-wielder is currently modeling jewelry from the Martha Stewart collection.

on January 20, 2006 at 4:58 PM
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